London Wasps chief Nick Eastwood moves to allay fears

Nick Eastwood, the newly-installed chief executive at Wasps, moved to reassure
fans on Sunday that the club is “pushing forward” off the pitch, as he
attempted to allay fears of a financial crisis at the club.

Wasps, Heineken Cup champions in 2007 and winners of the Premiership a year later, are £2 million in debt but Eastwood, who spent 12 years at the Rugby Football Union where he eventually worked as finance director, remains optimistic.

“Since the completion of the recent sale of the club, it has become clear that the club needed additional investment and, as such, my main priority in my first few weeks here has been to be a part of the planning and negotiation to put that in place,” he said. “I’m pleased to say that developments on that front have been positive in recent weeks and we’re now working on a financial plan which will put us in a much stronger position in the short to medium term.”

Citing that “there would be a lot of hard work ahead”, Eastwood assured fans in his first match programme column that “if we achieve our aims of securing new investment into the club and increasing our revenue from ticket sales next season, we have a much stronger financial platform on which to base our future plans”.

Wasps insisted that reports on Sunday of a delay in paying November salaries to eight players, including internationals and members of the coaching and backroom staff, was “an administrative error”, and that payments were made three days late.

“London Wasps can confirm that a very small number of employees received their monthly pay for November 2012 late due to an administrative error,” the club said. “This was a regrettable situation which was fully communicated to those affected and was resolved swiftly.”

On the pitch Wasps have enjoyed one of their best seasons in recent years. The 29-15 victory over Bath made it just one defeat in the last eight games - with Dai Young, the Welsh director of rugby at the club, enjoying the full faith of the squad.

Wasps have not lost once at home this season, and moved up to fourth in the Premiership table on Sunday.

Young has made it clear in recent months that he has been given no clear news over the financial difficulties, which has kept his hands tied in the transfer market. He is keen to re-sign rising stars such as back-row forward Billy Vunipola on long-term deals, but nothing will be finalised until the confirmation of a new investor, expected in the coming weeks.

“We are at full stretch at this moment in time and international call-ups will be tough for us to deal with, but regardless I would rather our players get the rewards they deserve,” explained Young.